
^oLfuJi. S.) 



^2/ , . - .^ 





I/lAv^'^^O^ 



THE 



CRUISE OF THE "QUERO" 



HOW WE CARRIED THE NEWS TO THE KING 



A Neglected Chapter in Local History 



By Robert S. Rantoul. 



[From the Histobical Collections of the Essex Institute 
VOL. XXXVI, 1900.] 




/ 



THE CRUISE OF THE "QUERO" 



HOW WE CARRIED THE NEWS TO THE KING. 



A NEGLECTED CHAPTER IN LOCAL HISTORY. 



BY ROBERT S. RANTOUL. 



[This paper is reproduced from the Ccnturi/ Illustrated Monthly Mar/azine for 
September, 7S09, with considerable additioH.f and changes. The courteous per- 
rmssion of the publishers has been f/runted, and also the use of the two fine por- 
traits prepared for that number of the Century. For these favors the thanks of the 
Essex Institute are due, as well as to Dr. Richard H. Derby of Neto York for much 
assistance rendered.] 



No American'3 advent in London ever produced so real 
a sensation as did that of a Salem sailor, Capt. John 
Derby, in May, 1775. He brought the news of Concord 
and Lexington in advance of the King's messenger, and 
made it known to the British public. His appearance 
upon that excited scene was unheralded and startling. To 
liken the patriot, making struggles and sacrifices for his 
country, to Jack-in-the-box or to Harlequin in the panto- 
mime, shot up through a stage trap-door, is not dignified 
nor proper, but the appearance of neither is more electric. 
The mystery of his coming and of his going was equally 
impenetrable. The incident was dramatic, but it was also 



..••; 



-•J. : 



0^ c 




2 THE CRUISE OF THE QUERO. 

terribly momentous. It convulsed an empire. A word of 
preface must be pardoned to sketch in outline the situa- 
tion then existing — the stage and its setting upon which 
entered this unknown actor. 

There were, so to say, two joint governors of this 
province in 1774-5. Hutchinson, relieved of the actual 
administration of the office, summoned to England and 
hurried into the presence of the King for a two hours' 
audience, without time to exchange his sea-clothing for 
the tinsel of the court — bidden to kiss hands, contrary 
to custom, in his Majesty's private closet, and taken at 
once into the closest contidence of the circle next the 
throne, was, from his arrival, June, 1774, until his death 
in London, June, 1780, a sort of Advisory Governor 
near the Court of St. James. Without his counsels no 
act of the ministry seems to have been decided on, though 
if his pacific promptings had been oitener heeded things 
might have gone better. Gage, who succeeded him here 
on the spot in May, 1774, discharged the active functions 
of " Captain-General and Governor-in- chief," and was the 
actual Governor-Resident of Massachusetts, — helping for- 
ward the agitation he was sent to quell by little displa3's 
of a willingness to conciliate in small matters, by a lack 
of decision in greater things, by an utter incapacity 
generally to grasp the situation. After Bunker Hill, Gage 
was superseded. 

The letters which we shall print give hints of all this suf- 
ficient for our purpose. If one reads between the lines 
they tell enough. Hutchinson, we need not add, was 
a native of Boston, an ex-chief Justice as well as an ex- 
Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and the distinguished 
historian of the Province. Gage was a soldier with an 
honorable record, bearing scars received while fighting 
by the side of Washington at the defeat of Braddock. 
He had earned all his honors on this continent — had 
been for the ten years just past Commander-in-chief of 
all the King's forces in America, and had married an 
American wife. He was the second son of Viscount Gage 
of Sussex and the Lord Gage, at whose manor in Sussex 
Hutchinson was a frequent visitor, was his elder brother. 
I shall make no attempt to describe the feverish flutter 

P. 
Author. 

(person). 

240 '01 



THE CKUISE OF THE QUEKO. 3 

of the English mind in May, 1775. "The stocks," says 
Horace Walpole, " beo;an to grow a little nervous." The 
merchants of London were feeling that the American war 
which threatened would destroy them if it came. John 
Wilkes, the eccentric and fearless radical who was at the 
moment Lord Mayor of London, openly espoused the 
contention of the Colonies. The Quakers, a large and 
influential body, deprecated force, as was their wont. In 
Court circles, and the more strongl}"^ in the ratio of near- 
ness to the throne, the impression prevailed that all pre- 
tence on our part of a determination to resist was put on 
for effect, and that the first serious demonstration of the 
home government would result in our submission. Frank- 
lin and Lee were in LondcAi as the agents of Massachu- 
setts. The pronounced friends of America in England 
were without a policy — they were little better than ob- 
structionists seeking to postpone the final stroke in hopes 
some favorable chance might save the country — and they, 
with a great mass of well-disposed but ill-instructed 
Englishmen, who shrank from taking arms against their 
kindred but felt that loyalty would soon demand it, 
awaited nervously the arrival of news which must put the 
hoped-for conciliation beyond their reach. Neither war 
nor martial law had been decLired ; recruiting in the 
American regiments was slow ; nor had the large force 
which Gage demanded been sent him. Gage's late dis- 
patches to Dartmouth, the then Secretary of State for the 
Colonies in Lord North's cabinet, had been intended to 
allay apprehension of an early issue and had measurably 
done so. He was a temporizer by habit and dreaded an 
outbreak. Gage had been relieved as Commander-in- 
chief in America and had been sent to Massachusetts pri- 
marily to enforce the Boston Port Bill or, as Lord North 
said in the House of Peers, to make of Boston an inland 
town, sixteen miles from any harbor, and to transfer the 
capital of the state by the King's orders to Salem, to- 
gether with all the commercial and social advantages to 
Salem, Marblehead and Beverly, which must incidentally 
result to them from the distress of Boston.^ 

1 Neither Hutchinson nor Gage were strangers to Salem society. Hutchinson 
had been royally entertained here at the old Assembly House which stood where 



4 THE CRUISE OF THE QUERO. 

The close terms of intimacy existing between Hutchin- 
S(ni and such men as Dr. Samuel Johnson, the lexicog- 
rapher and author of " Taxation no Tyranny," Edward 
Gibbon, the historian ofthe "Decline and Fall," then hold- 
ing a seat in the House of Commons, General Gage, Lord 
Gage his brother, Lord Dartmouth, the Secretary of State 
for the Colonies, the three Major Generals, Howe, Clinton 
and Bnrgoyne, just setting out with fresh instructions for 
America, ex-Governors Pownall and Bernard, and all the 
colonial refugees in London, are patent to the reader of 
Hutchinson's diary. 

In the midst of surroundings like these, the public 
mind intensely and vaguely apprehensive and for the 
moment without definite expectation, an unknown sailor 
bursts upon the scene. Reaching London so soon after 
the events he claimed to herald, his story seemed on that 
account even to be tainted with suspicion. Walpole 
dubbed him the " Accidental Captain." Coming in a 
fashion which he did not explain and which they could 
not understand, proclaiming in the highways that which 
both friends and enemies of the Colonies were at the 
moment alike averse to hear, he naturally had the ear of 
everybody. A collision, he said, had occurred and the 
government had lost. Who was this unbidden guest 
charged with such a startling message? Was it safe to 
rely on the presumptions against his honesty and to dis- 
miss the tale as groundless? Was there not rather a 
verisimilitude about it which, like Banquo's ghost, would 
not away at anybody's bidding? The streets were agi- 
tated but the Court circles w^ere more profoundly agitated. 
If a battle had been fought, where was the government 

the South Church Chapel now stands, in May, 1774, on the occasion of his last 
military review, and he had clung- for years to the notion of removing the Capi- 
tal of the Province to Salem. John Adams wrote to his wife that he knew this 
to be the fact and stated his grounds. (See Hist. Coll. Essex Institute, Vol. xxxi, 
pages 71, 82-3-4.) 

Gage had been welcomed with a ball at the same place on the King's Birthday 
in June, 1774, and had passed that summer ^t the Hooper Mansion in Danvers, 
convening the Provincial Legislature in the Salem Town House. The Boston 
Cadets, when they resented his treatment of their commander, John Hancock, 
came to Salem to deliver up their colors. When Gage marched a regiment up 
from Salem Neck as far as the Williams House, now the site of the Cadet Ar- 
mory, to disperse a Salem Town Meeting in August, 1774, Captain Richard Derby 
the father of Capt. John Derby, was one of the public spirited men who stood 
forth to oppose this hot-headed policy and was of the committee who confronted 
Gage in the historic scene at the Colonel Brown Mansion located where now ia 
Derby Square. 



THE CRUISE OF THE "QUERO." 5 

messenger with the authorized dispatch which should 
have reported it? It a battle had not been fought why this 
crafty tale invented out of nothing for a nine days' won- 
der? It was proposed to arrest Derby and bring him 
before the Privy Council. But was this politic? Would 
this not show that the stocks, grown nervous, had, as 
Walpole wrote, "affected other pulses?" Hutchinson could 
not wholly reject the story. He wrote in his diary, June 
10th, when the government dispatches finally reached Lon- 
don : " I assured many gentlemen who would give no 
credit to Darby's account that it would prove near the 
truth. And now they are more struck than if they had 
not been so sanguine before." 

Let us deal with Events in their sequence. Derby 
reached London on Sunday evening, May 28th, and took 
lodgings. He had with him copies of the Salem Gazette 
for April 21st and 25th, containing a pretty good account 
of the transactions of the 19th, attributed in part to the 
pen of Timothy Pickering. He had, also, a letter of in- 
structions from the Provincial Congress then sitting at 
Watertown, dated April 26, accrediting him and his secret 
mission to Franklin and Lee. And ' especially he had 
with him copies of several affidavits, giving sworn state- 
ments of what had happened, from the lips not only of 
Americans who had taken part but of British prisoners 
also. Ensign Gould nmong them. This evidence he lost 
no time in putting into the hands of the Lord Mayor of 
London, and this ardent partisan was prompt to dis- 
seminate the statements furnished. On May 29th the 
news was well abroad and was received with consterna- 
tion and with the wildest comment. Hutchinson's entry 
in his diary for May 29, 1775, is this : 

" Cap° Darby came to town last evening. He is sent 
by the Provincial Congress in a vessel in ballast, to pub- 
lish here their account of an action between the troops 
and the inhabitants on the 19th of April. A vessel which 
sailed four days before with dispatches from Gage is not 
arrived. 2 The opposition here rejoice that the Americans 

ait is not without interest to observe that Capt. Derby's statement, to the effect 
that a Government dispatch had sailed four days before him in the "Sukey " was 
accepted without question by everybody in London, King and commoner'alike 
The Massachusetts Governor knew something of Salem shipmasters in general 



b THK CRUISE OF THE QUERO. 

fight, after it had been geneially said they would not. 
The conduct of the Boston leaders is much the same as it 
was after the inhabitants were killed the 5 of March, 1770. 
They hurry away a vessel that their partial accounts 
may make the first impression, I think Gage's will be 
diflTereut. The inhabitants, after this action, collected 
together and have formed an army at Cambridge under 
Ward their general : Stop'd all communication between 
country and town and Gage suffers none of the town 
to go out. I am greatly anxious for my family and 
friends. 

"I carried the news to Lord Dartmouth, who was much 
struck with it. The first accounts were very unfavoral)le, 
it not being known that they all came from one side. The 
alarm abated before night, and we wait with a greater 
degree of calmness for the accounts from the other side. 
Darby sailed from Salem the 29th of April." 

Next day Lord Dartmouth published, in the govern- 
ment Gazette, an official caution in these Avords : 

" Secretary of State's Ofiice, Whitehall, INIay 30, 1775. 

"A report having been spread, Hud an account having 
been printed and published, of a skirmish between some 
of the people in the Province of MassacJtuseUs Bay and 
a detachment of His Majesty's troops, it is proper to in- 
form the publick that no advices have as yet been received 
in the American Department of any such event. 

" There is reason to believe that there are dispatches from 
General Gage on board the Sukey, Captain Broivn, 
which, though she sailed four days before the vessel that 
brought the printed accounts, is not arrived." 

This bulletin in turn called forth a counter-blast in 
these words from Lee (Franklin had sailed for America) 
which appeared, May 31, in the joiu'uals favorable to the 
Colonies : 

" London, May 30. As a doubt of the authenticity of the 
account from Salem, touching an engagement between the 
King's troops and the provincials in the Massachusetts 

and of the Derby family in particular. No other evidence of the fact had reached 
London save Derby's assertion. Yet it figures in all the speculations and dis- 
cussions of the hour. At last a story reached London, June 3, from vessels arrived 
at Liverpool and at Bristol, that there had been lighting-, but it gave no details. 
Derby left London, June 1, and Gage's dispatch reached Whiteliall, June 10. 



THE CRUISE OF THE QUEKO. 7 

Bay, may arise from a paragraph in the Gazette of this 
evening, I desire to inform all those who wish to see the 
original affitlavits, which confirm the account, that they 
are deposited at the Mansit)n House with the Right Hon. 
the Lord Mayor, for their inspection." 

[Signed] "Arthur Lee, the Agent for the House of 
Representativ^es of the Massachusetts Bay." 

Home Tooke assumed the statement to be true, and 
commented on it in print in terms which soon cost him a 
trial for high treason and a year's imprisonment.^ 

On the same day we tind Gibbon, the independent 
member of Parliament for St. Ives, writing this interest- 
ing account to his friend Holroyd, afterwards to become 
Lord Sheffield and a person of much distinction as well aa 
his biographer : 

" You will probably see in the papers the Boston Gazette 
Extraordinary.^ I shall therefore mention a few circum- 
stances which I have from Governor Hutchinson. 

3 The Rev. John Home, first a curate in Kent, who afterwards studied law, but 
was refused a license to practise because he had taken Holy Orders, became a 
famous pliilological authority, commended by Doctor Johnson, and a relentless 
political agitator. He had been educated at Eton and Cambridge. He later added 
the name of Tooke, and was first the friend and supporter arid then the bitter 
opponent of John Wilkes. He was twice defeated for tlie House of Commons 
and at last, in 1801, elected only to be refused his seat on the same ground on 
which he had been excluded from the bar. He was tried for high treason on ac- 
count of the sympathy he expressed with the French Revolution, and was suc- 
cessfully defended by Erskine. 

He was among the most ardent friends of America, and on the arrival of Derby 
with his dispatches he did not hesitate to stigmatize the action of Gage and the 
King's troops as murder. This he did in a publication dated June 9, before the 
promulgation of Gage's dispatch, and he forthwith proceeded to raise a fund of 
£100 for the relief of the families of victims." the sum, a large part of which he 
himself paid, to be forwarded to Frankliu. For all this, "done in contempt of 
our Sovereign Lord and King," HorneTooke was put upon his trial, July 4, 1777. 
Mansfield was judge andTh'urlow attorney-general, and that prosecuting officer 
urged that the pillory was the proper penalty for the offence. But no such pen- 
alty was inflicted. He was duly found guilty after a trial of extraordinary length 
and bitterness, which is reported in full in the volume of State Trials for the six- 
teenth year of George HI, and he served a sentence of a year's imprisonment 
and a fine of £200. 

Ensign Gould was in the witness-box and swore, among other things, that he 
saw no scalping of British soldiers at Concord or at Lexington, but that he heard 
of it. He swore to the continued firing of cannon as alarm guns after their start 
from Boston on the march to Concord" At this disclosure Lord Mansfield showed 
much surprise and doubt and cross-examined him closely, but Ensign Gould ad- 
liered to his statement that the Provincials had cannon. Perhaps some of Rich- 
ard Derby's guns had found their way to Charlestown. (See British State Trials 
for 1776, in Volume XI, published 1781, for years from 11th Richard II to 16th 
George III. Also Hutchinson's Diary, pp. 463-7.) 

« Boston was at this time in the military occupation of the British. There was 
no Boston Gazette. Salem will be found, in the course of this paper, to be con- 
founded by English authorities with both Marblehead and Boston. Gibbon in 
writing Holroyd, March 15, 1774, about removing the seat of government, calls it 
" New Salem," perhaps contrasting us with Salem in the Province of Madras, for 
the British occupation of India was just commencing. The Englishman of the 
period knew less of the geography of Massachusetts than he knew of the moun- 



8 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 

"That Gazette is the only account arrived. As soon as 
the business was over the Proviuciul Congress dispatched 
a vessel with the news for the good people of England. 
The vessel was taken up to sail instantly at a considerable 
loss and expense, as she went without any lading but her 
ballast. No other letters were allowed to be put on board 
nor did the crew know their destination 'till they were on 
the banks of Newfoundland. The master is a man of 
character and moderation, and from his mouth the follow- 
ing particulars have been drawn. Fides sit penes auctorem. 

" It cannot fairly be called a defeat of the King's troops ; 
since they marched to Concord, destroyed or brought 
away the stores, and then returned back. They were so 
much fatigued with their day's work — they had marched 
above thirty miles — that they encamped in the evening 
at some distance from Boston without being attacked in 
the night. It can hardly be called an engagement ; there 
never was any large body of provincials. Our troops 
during the march and retreat were chiefly harassed by 
flying parties from behind the stone walls along the road 
and by many shots from the windows as they passed 
through the villages. It was then they were guilty of 
settins: fire to some of those hostile houses. Ensign 
Gould had been sent with only twelve men to repair a 
wooden bridge for the retreat ; he was attacked by the 
Saints with a Minister at their head, who killed two men 
and took the ensign with the others prisoners. The next 
day the Country rose. When the Master came away he 
says that Boston was invested by a camp of about fifteen 
hundred tents. They have cannon. Their general is a 
Col. Ward, a member of the late council, and who served 
with credit in the last war. His outposts are advanced so 
near the town that they can talk to those of General Gage. 

tains of the moon. Lord North stated in the House of Peers, in discussing the 
Boston Port Bill, that hereafter all vessels would be "searched at Marblenead 
in the province of Salem." In 1877, I was asked, across a dinner talile in Switz- 
erland, by the cousin of a conspicuous London writer, who had passed her whole 
life as a governesa teaching the girls of some of the best families in London, 
whether the Americans had begun to colonize west of the Alleghany Mountains! 
The geography of this Continent, except in outline, was no part of an English 
education until the unexpected result of our Civil War made it necessary to Ijnow 
more about us. If there is one thing tlie typical Englishman respects it is power, 
and after the Union triumphed, both in arms and in finance, the educated Briton 
made haste to study the phenomenon. 

By a " Gazette Extraordinary" I suppose is meant what our newsboys would 
now call a " Gazette Extra." 




CAPTAIN RICHARD DERBY 

I 7 12-1 783 

Engraved for the Century Magazine from a portrait copied by J. Alden Weir 

after the original painting by Colonel Henry Sargent 



THE CRUISE OF THE QUEIiO. V 

"This looks serious, and is indeed so, but the Governor 
observed to me that the month of May is the time for 
sowing Indian corn, the great sustenance of the Province, 
and that, unless the Insurgents are determined to hasten 
a famine, they must have returned to their own habita- 
tions : especially as the restraining act (they had already 
heard of it) cuts off all foreign supply, which indeed 
generally becomes necessary to the Province before 
winter."^ 

In writinir to his son Thomas, Hutchinson says : 

"London, St. James's Strket 
31 May, 1775. 
" My Dear Son, 
Captain Darby, in ballast, arrived at Southampton from Marble- 
head the 27, and came to London the next evening. I am greatly 
distressed for you. Darby's own accounts confirm many material 
parts of the narrative from the congress, and they that know him say 
he deserves credit and that he has a good character : but I think those 
people would not have been at the expense of a vessel from Marblehead 
or Salem to England for the sake of telling the truth." 

On the same day Hutchinson wrote Gage as follows : 

" St. James's Street, 31 May, 1775. 
" Dear Sir, — 
The arrival of Captain Darby from Salem on the 28th with dis- 
patches from the Congress at WatertoAvn, immediately published in 
the papers, has caused a general anxiety in the minds of all who wish 
the happiness of Britain and her Colonies. I have known the former 
interesting events have been partially represented : I therefore be- 
lieve with discretion the representation now received. It is unfortu- 
nate to have the first impression made from that quarter. I am 
informed that this manoeuver Avas conducted so privately that the 
ship's crew did not know they were bound to England until they 

B This is quite in line witii what Governoi- Hutchinson had told George III of 
the resources of this Province. 

The King. — " To what produce is yoiir climate best adapted?" 
Gov. Hutchinson. — " To grazing, Sir; 5"0ur Majesty has not a liner Colony for 
gi-ass in all your dominions: And nothing is more profitable in America than 
pasture, because labour is very dear." 

The King.—" Then you import all your bread corn from the other Colonies?" 
Gov. Hutchinson. — "No, Sir, scarce any, except for the use of the maritime 
towns. In the country towns the people raise grain enough for their own ex- 
pending and sometimes for exportation. They live upon coarse bread made of 
rye and corn mixed, and by long use they learn to prefer this to flour or wheat 
bread." 

The King. — " What corn ?" 

Got'. Hutchinson. — " Indian corn, or, as it is called in Authors, Maize." 
The King. — " Ay, I know it. Does that make good bread?" 
Gov. Hutchinson. — "Not by itself, Sir; the bread will soon be dry and husky; 
but the Rye keeps it moist, and some of our country people prefer a bushel of 
Rye to a bushel of Wheat, if the price should be the same." 
The King. — " That's very strange." 



10 THE CRUISE OF THE "qUEKO." 

were on the Newfoundland Banks. It is said your dispatches are on 
Tjoard Captain Brown, who sailed some days before Darby. I hope 
they are at liand and -will aflbrd us some relief." 

Lord Dartmouth, the next day, addresses this official 
•cominiiiiicatioii to General Gage: 

" WHirEH.\LL, 1st June, 1775. 

" Sir: 

Since my letter to you of 27tli ult. au account has been printed 
here, accompanied "with depositions to verify it, of skirmishes be- 
tween a detachment of the troops under your command and difl'erent 
bodies of the Provincial Militia. 

It appears upon the fullest inquiry that this account, which is chiefly 
taken from a Salem newspaper, lias been published by a Capt. Darby, 
who arrived on Friday or Saturday at Southampton in a small vessel 
in bfillast, directly from Salem, and from every circumstance, relat- 
ing to this person and the vessel, it is evident he was employed by 
the Provincial Congress to bring this account, which is plainly made 
up for the purpose of conveying every possible prejudice and mis- 
representation of the truth. 

From the answers he has given to such questions as have been 
asked, there is the greatest probability that the whole amounts to no 
more than that a Detachment, sent by you to destroy Cannon and 
Stores collected at Concord for the purpose of aiding Rebellion, were 
fired upon, at difi'erent times, by the people of the Country in small 
bodies from behind trees & houses, but that the party effected the 
service tliey went upon, and returned to Boston, and I have the satis- 
faction to tell you that, the affair being considered in that light by all 
discerning men, it has had no other effect here than to raise that "just 
indignation Avhich every honest man must feel at the rebellions con- 
duct of the New England Colonies. At the same time it is very much 
to be lamented, that we have not some account from you of the 
transaction, Avhicli I do not mention from any supposition that you 
did not send the earliest intelligence of it, for we know from Darby 
that a vessel with dispatches sailed four days before him. We ex- 
pect the arrival of that vessel with great impatience, but 'till she ar- 
rives I can form no decisive judgment of what has happened, and 
therefore can have nothing more to add but that I am &c, Dartmouth." 

A private letter from London, dated the same day, 
reached the Provincial Conji^ress at Watertovvn and was 
there promulgated. Here is an extract : 

" The intelligence by Captain Darby of the defeat of General Gage's 
men under Lord Percy by the Americans on the 19th of April last has 
given very general pleasure here, as the newspapers will testify. 'Tis 
not with certainty that one can speak of the disposition of people in 
England with respect to the contest with America, though we are 
clear that the friends of America increase every day, particularly since 
the above intelligence. It is believed the ministers have not as yet 
formed any plan in consequence of the action of April 19. They are 
in total confusion and consternaticn and wait for General Gage's 
despatches by Captain Brown." 



THE CRUISE OF THE " QUEKO." 11 

Urban's '' Gentleman's Magazine" of London, for May 
and June, 1775, contains expressions of the feeling awak- 
ened by these events and introduces Captain Derby to its 
readers in the first instance as a bearer of Government 
dispatches. It accepts his statements without question. 

Gibbon writes again to Holroyd : 

" Bentinck Street, June 3rd, 1775. 

"The American news becomes everj' hour more problematical. 
Darby, the master of the ship, has not coudescendecl to show to any 
one tiie original of the Salem Gazette. He has refused to come to 
Lord Dartmouth, and what is still more extraordinary, though he 
says he left his ship at Southampton, a person of consequence sent 
down there by government has not been able to learn the least news 
about it. Yet, on the other hand, a ship from New York is certainly ar- 
rived at Bristol with the report that k skirmish at Boston was talked of. 
No news from Gage." 

And again later in these words : 

" Though Darby's vessel cannot be found, it is pretty clear he is no 
impostor. He arrived in his boat at Southampton, and probal)ly left 
his ship in some creek of the Isle of Wight. He has now left town, 
and is gone, it is said, on a trading voyage to purchase ammunition in 
France and Spain. Do you not admire the lenity of government? 
This day news came that a sliip arrived at Liverpool from Rhode Isl- 
and. She sailed the 20th, the day after the Skirmish, -and has brought 
a general confirmation of it. There was a report that evening of the 
arrival of the " Sukey" from Gage, but it certainly is not true, and 
you know as much of the matter as Lord North." 

And so feeling rose higher as the mystery deepened. 
On June 3, Hutchinson wrote to his friend Dr. Samuel 
Johnson in these words : 

"London, St. James Street, 3rd Junk, 1775. 

" Our latest advices from New England are of a very serious na- 
ture to all ; they are very distressing to me, who ara so immediately 
interested in them. Bella ! Horrida Bella ! We have only one side, 
the Congress at Watertown having sent a light schooner which has 
been arrived six or seven days and no intelligence yet from the Gen- 
eral ; until that arrives, sentiments upon measures seem to be sus- 
pended. I hoar one and another of the king's ministers say there is 
no receding. And yet to think of going on makes me shudder. May 
God Almighty order the event in mercy to my unhappy country !" 

On that day Hutchinson'makes this entry in his diary : 
"June 3rd. Went into the City to Mr. Lane's counting 
room." [Lane and Fraser were for several generations 



12 THE CRUISE OF THE "QDERO." 

the London correspoiulcMits of the Derby family.] " Found 
that Captain Darby had not been seen since tlie first in- 
stant ; that he had a letter of credit from Lane on some 
house in Spain. Afterwards I saw Mr. Pownall" [assist- 
ant Secretary of State under Lord Dartmouth] " at Lord 
Dartmouth's office, where I carried Colonel Pickman" 
[of Salem] "and Pownall was of opinion Darby was gone 
to Spain to pnrchase ammunition, arms, &c. We are 
still in a state of uncertainty concerning the action in 
Massachusetts. Vessels are arrived at Bristol, which met 
with other vessels on their passage, and received as news 
that there had been a battle, but could tell no particulars." 

The entry in the same diary I'or June 4th is as follows : 

" Mr. Keene " [a member of Parliament] " called, and 
seems much affected with the American news. He gave 
a hint about the Hessian and Hanoverian troops, but 
seemed to suppose them to serve as a suppletory for troops 
to go from home, rather than to be sent to America them- 
selves. 

"Wind still easterly and no intelligence. 

" It is said that Darby left his lodging:^ the first instant, 
and is supposed to have sailed. Mr. Pownall sent to 
Southampton to inquire, and the collector knew of no 
such vessel there, [t is supposed he left her in some 
small harbor or inlet and came in his boat to Southamp- 
ton. Many people began to complain of the publication, 
and wondered he had not been taken up and examined. 
He took a letter of credit, Colonel Pickman intimated, 
for Spain. He has said to some that he had a vessel gone 
or going to Spain with a cargo of fish : to others, that he 
was going for a load of mules." 

A Vienna correspondent of the New York " Gazette 
and Mercury " makes this explanation of the quandary in 
which Derby's seamanship had placed the ministry : "The 
ship SuKEY not yet arriving, on board of which the gov- 
ernment dispatches are, causes much altercati(m among 
the politicians. And yet it is what happens every day in 
the commercial world. 

" Captain Darby's ship which brought over the printed 
account, is a small vessel of about 60 tons, schooner 
rigged, and quite light ; and the ship Sukey is a large 



THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 13 

«hip, about 200 tons, and heavily loaded to a capital 
house in the Boston trade. These circumstances may 
very well account for the difference of time between the 
arrival of the two ships." 

On June 9th the " Sukey " with Gage's dispatch arrived 
at last. It did not much allay the feverish unrest. 

Hutchinson's diary contains this entry for June 10th : 
" A lieutenant in the navy arrived about noon at Lord 
Dartmouth's office. Mr. Pownall gave me notice, know- 
ing my anxiety ; but though relieved from suspense, yet 
received but little comfort, from the accounts themselves 
being much the same with what Darby brought. The 
material difference is the declaration by Smith, who was the 
commander of the first party though not present at the first 
action, that the inhabitants fired first, and though by the re- 
turns only 63 were killed outright, yet 157 were wounded, 
and 24 missing; which upon the whole is a greater num- 
ber than Darby reported but not so many killed." 

A private letter from Leeds, dated June 10, says : 

. . . " One of the Lords in administration was actually at St. 
Dunstan's Church on Thursday evening to offer up his prayers for the 
arrival of the Sukey, and good iiews from the king's friends in America." 

The London Press contained this comment : 

" To THE PUBLICK. 

" London, Junk 12, 1775. 

" When the news of a massacre first arrived, the pensioned writer 
of the Gazette entreated the publick 'to suspend their judgment, as 
Government had received no tidings of the matter.' It was added 
that there was every reason to expect despatches from General 
Gage, by a vessel called the Sukey.' The publick have suspended their 
judgment; they have waited the arrival of the Sukey ; and the humane 
part of mankind have wished that the fatal tale related by Captain 
Derby might prove altogether fictitious. To the great grief of every 
thinking man, this is not the case. We are now in possession of both 
the accounts. The Americans have given their narrative of the mas- 
sacre ; the favourite official servants have given a Scotch account of 
the skirmish. In what one material fact do the two relations, when 
contrasted with each other, disagree? The Americans said ' that a 
detachment of the King's Troops advanced towards Concord; that 
they attempted to secure two bridges on different roads beyond Con- 
cord ; that when they reached Lexington they found a body of Provin- 
cials exercising on a green ; that on discovering the Provincial militia 
thus employed, the King's Troops called out to them to disperse, 



14 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 

damned them for a parcel of rebels, and killed one or two, as the most 
effectual method of intimidating the rest.' This the writer of the 
Scotch account in the Gazette stj'les, ' niarchino; up to the rebels to 
inquire the reason of being so assembled.' Botli relations, however, 
agree in this, that a question was asked ; the pensioned varnisher 
only sa3'ing that it was asked in a civil way, attended Avith the loss of 
blood. 

"Thus far, then, the facts, in every material circumstance, precisely 
agree ; and as yet, we have every reason to believe that the Salem 
Gazette is to the full as authentick as our Government paper, which, 
as a literary composition, is a disgrace to the Kingdom. 

"The Salem Gazette assuredus that the King's Troops were compelled 
to return from Concord; that a handful of militia put them to rout, 
and killed and wounded several as they fled. Is this contradicted in 
the English Gazette? quite the contrary ; it is confirmed. The Scotch 
account of the skirmish acknowledges that ' on the hasty return of 
the troops from Concord, they were very much annoyed, and several 
of them were killed and wounded.' The Scotch account also adds 
' that the Provincials kept up a scattering fire during the whole of the 
march of the King's Troops of fifteen miles, by which means several 
of them were killed and wounded.' If the American Militia ' kept 
up a scattering fire on the King's Troops, of fifteen miles,' the Pro- 
vincials must have pursued, and the Regulars must have fled, which 
confirms the account given in the Salem Gazette, wherein it is asserted 
that the liegulars ' were forced to retreat.' Whether they marched 
like mutes at a funeral, or whether they fled like the relations and 
friends of the present ministry who were amongst the rebel army at 
the battle of Cullodon, is left entirely to the conjecture of the reader ; 
though it should seem that a scattering Are, poured in upon a retreat- 
ing enemy for fifteen miles together, would naturally, like goads ap- 
plied to the sides of oxen, make them march off as fast as they could." 

July 1st, Dartmouth sent Gage this mild rebuke : 

"Whitehall, 1st July, 1775. 

*' Sir : On the 10th of last month in the morninu:. Lieutenant Nunn 
arrived at my oftlce with your despatch containing an account of 
the transaction on the 19th of April of which the public had before 
received intelligence by a schooner, to all appearances sent by the 
enemies of government, on purpose to make an impression here by 
representing the afl'air between the King's troops and the rebel Pro- 
vincials in a light the most favorable to their own view. Their industry 
on this occasion had its effect, in leaving for some days a false im- 
pression upon people's minds, and I mention it to you with a hope 
that, in any future event of importance, it will be thought proper, 
both by yourself and the admiral, to send your dispatches by one of 
the light vessels of the fleet. "^ 

We have quoted enough to show the state of panic into 
which the arrival of the Salem sailor plunged British 

• Dartmoutli's dispatch from Gage, with its inclosui-ef?, is printed in full in the 
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. xiv, pp. 348-53. 



THE CRUISE OF THE " QUEUO." 15- 

society near the throne. A word will he psirdoned ex- 
plaining the scheme upon which Captain Derby acted. 

The hot, tumultuous April day of blood was scarcely 
over before the more sagacious of the Patriots about Bos- 
ton were planning how to make the most of the new sit- 
uation. It was their first care to show that they were 
within the law ; not the aggressors, — not disturbers of 
the peace of the realm, but champions of the rights of 
Englishmen. Let them tell the story in their own words. 

Three days after the battle, Saturday, April 22nd, the 
Provincial Congress sat at Concord, and voted a com- 
mittee " to take depositions in perpetuam from which a 
full account of the transactions of the troops under Gen- 
eral Gage in the route to and from Concord on Wednes- 
day last may be collected to be sent to England by the 
first ship from Salem." Captain Richard Derby, a retired 
shipmaster of Salem, seems to have been a member of 
that Congress. It had organized itself at Salem in the 
preceding October. He had been present at the North 
Bridge in Salem in February, and had helped to frustrate 
there Gage's attempt to seize some nineteen ships' guns 
which were being mounted for the use of Massachusetts 
as field artillery. Eight of these guns belonged to him. 
He had suffered, both in purse and person, from the arro- 
gance of the ministerial policy, and was ready on the in- 
stant to do what he could to further the purposes of the 
Provincial Congress. He was engaged at the moment, as 
a prosperous merchant, in trade with the West Indies 
and the Mediterranean ports. In this trade he employed, 
for the most part, small craft of fifty or sixty tons burden. 
The typical seagoing schooner of the period is here depict- 
ed from a painting of the "Baltick," one of the three 
water-color drawings of her in possession of the Essex 
Institute, though the " Baltick " was not owned by Captain 
Derby .'^ The spirit in which Captain Derby received news 

'The relative tonna":e of trading craft before and since the Revolution is a 
point of intereet. William Gray's great lleet, claimed to have been at times the 
largest in the country, when it did not employ lighters, came up the South River 
to hie little wharf, which was located at the South Bridge. Richard Derby, at 
various dates, owned amongst his fleet the schooner "Three Brothers," of fifty- 
five tons, navigated by a master, mate, and three men, which was captured, July, 
1759, by a British Privateer, and which was bound to St. Eustatia in 1761 ; also the 
"Betsey," of fifty tons, taken in 1761 by a French Cruiser between Newfound- 
land and Guadeloupe; also the twenty-ton schooner "Mary," sailing, in 1762,, 



16 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUEKO." 

of the first bloodshed appears in his letter of instructions 
to Captain Hathorne, not before in print, which follows: 



"Salem, May y*^ 9, 1775. 

" Capt. Dan' Hathorn of Scfiooner Patty, West Indies : 
" Sir 
" I suppose you will be glad to hear from liorae, but thiugs are in 
such a confused state I know uot what to write you. Boston is now 
blocked up by at least 30,000 men. We have had no action since y* 
19 of April, which was very bloody. They, y" Regulars, came out in 
y« night, silently up Cambridge river, and got almost to Concord be- 
fore ^ay, so that y^ country had a very short time to get out. Had 
we had one hour longer not a soul of those blood-thirsty creatures 
would ever have reached Boston. However, they got a dire drubbing 
so that they have not played y^ Yankee tune since. We have lost a 
number of brave men but we have killed, taken and rendered justice, 
I believe, at least 8 to 1, and I believe such a spirit never was, every- 
body striving to excel. We have no Tories, saving what is noAv shut 
up in Boston or gone off. There hath not been as yet any stopping 
of y** trade, so I'would have you get a load of molasses as good and 
cheap and as quick as you can and proceed home. If you have not 
sold, and y'' markets are bad where you are, you have liberty to pro- 
ceed any other ways, either to y« Mole, Jamaica, or to make a fresh 



with three men, to Cape Francois and the Island of Hispaniola; also the 
schooners " Polly " and " Ransrer," besides the " Patty," Captain Hathorne. 
few of the Custom House books, kept before the Revolution, are at the State 
House, and their loss is in no way accounted for unless by the Are of October, 
1774, at Town House Square, or by the evacuation of Boston, March 17, 1776. The 
Records made between 1774 and 1789 have not been traced at all, although the 
State Archives contain seven volumes of maritime papers dated between 1775 
and 1781. The svstem of admeasurement has, of course, been changed several 
times, so that the'relative capacity of bottoms is not to be exactly estimated by 
the nominal tonnage of to-day. 

I am indebted to Special Deputy Collector Hitchings of the Custom House at 
this port, for these facts : 

The first Act of Congress since the Constitution, for the admeasurement of 
vessels, was passed Aug. 4, 1790. It was modified by Act of March 2, 1799, which 
did not chani^e the method, and this svstem continued until the Act of May G, 
1864, which made the nominal tonnage of a vessel less. For instance, the Schr. 
" Montezuma," measuring 99 3-95 under Act of Aug. 4, 1790, measured 65 19100 
tons under Act of Mav 6, 1S64. The Act of Aug. 2, 1882, allowed the deduction of 
spaces for crew on the gross tonnage, not to exceed 5 per cent. This made the 
Alontezuma's tonnage 65 19-10!i gross, —61 9.'!-100 net. The Act of March 5, 1895, 
allowed the deduction of all spaces which the crew occupied, and that part of 
the cabin used exclusively by the Master; also that part used for Boatswain's 
stores, Anchor gear, Steering gear, Chart-house and Storage of sails, not to ex- 
ceed 2 1-2 per cent of the gross tonnage, so that the present nominal tonnage nets 
a little less than two-thirds that of 1790. 

There is no information on file at the Custom House of this Port governing the 
tonnage of vessels prior to the above dates, but if the prerevolutionary system 
of admeasurement was like that adopted in 1790, which, in the absence of fig- 
ures, seems improbable, then it would appear that the " Quero," measuring 62 
tons, would if measured since March, 1895, net only 39 2-3 tons. The size of these 
vessels, carrying a fewguns, used in foreign trade and encountering all the perils 
of freebooters, privateers, and hostile navies, besides those of Atlantic naviga- 
tion, cannot but excite "our special wonder." 

See the Driver Family by Harriet Ruth Waters-Cooke (1889) pp. 103-13. Also 
Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, " Elias Hasket Derby." Vol. xxxvi, pp. 149-53. 



THE CRUISE OF THE QUERO. 



17 



bottom, or anything else that you may think likely to help y« voyage, 
but always to keep your money in your own hands. 

1 remain your friend and employer, 
pr. Capt. Clkaveland Richard Derby." 

Captain Richard Derby owned at that time a little, fast- 
sailing schooner called the "Qnero," of 62 tons burden — 
a mere yacht — and to prepare so small a craft for sea would 
take bnt little time, and would employ bnt few hands, so 
that the secret conld be the better kept. He offered her to 
the Cong'reas. Captain Derby's two sons, Richard Junior, 
and John, enlisted with him in the venture. His younger 




son,Elias Hasket Derby, was in his counting-room keep- 
ing books. Richard was to fit out and John, thirty-four 
years old, was to command the " Quero."^ In a very few 
days she was ready to weigh anchor. Gage's dispatch by 
the Royal express-packet " Sukey " had sailed, April 24 ; 

8 A Latinist might say that the Quero had been well named, for a craft that 
was to play at "hide-and-seei" with the Britisli Navy. In point of fact there was 
a fishing ground al)out a hundred miles to the eastward of Cape Sable, known as 
the "Bank of Quero," and much frequented by our hardy flsher-folk in former 
years. Also there is a river in Honduras, bearing the name "Quero," and flowing 
Into the Caribbean Sea. The river would not be unknown to our traders in the 
West Indies. From one or the other of these the brave little schooner doubtless 
got her name. There is a town of ."Quero" in the mountains of Spain and another 
In Italy. But these are both interior towns in no way related to American com- 
merce. What "Quero" means in these connections, the linguists must determine. 



18 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 

but that gave no uneasiness, for the packet was slow and 
deep-laden. The first difficulty to be encountered was in 
getting out of port. The "Lively " frigate, destined soon 
after to fire the opening shot at Bunker Hill, was then on 
guard off the harbors of Salem, Marblehead and Beverly, 
to enforce the Port Bill and search every out-going and 
in-coming vessel. 

The Congress at Watertown had, on April 26th, passed 
a vote accrediting to Franklin Captain Derby's mission, 
and reciting the grievances which had produced the out- 
break. It was in these words : 

"In Provincial Congress, Watertown, April 26, 1775. 
" To THE Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Esq., London: 

"Sir: From the entire confldence we repose in your faithfulness 
and abilities, we consider it the happiness of this Colony that the im- 
portant trust of ajs^eucy for it, on tliis day of unequalled distress, is 
devolved on your hands ; and we doubt not your attachment to the 
cause of the liberties of mankind will make every possible exertion 
In our behalf a pleasure to you, although our circumstances will com- 
pel us often to interrupt your repose by matters that will surely give 
you pain. A single instance hereof is the occasion of the present 
letter; the contents of this packet will be our apology for troubling 
you with it. From these you will see how and by Avhom we are at 
last plunged into the horrours of a most unnatural war. Our enemies, 
we are told, have despatched to Great Britain a fallacious account of 
the tragedy they have begun ; to prevent the operation of which to 
the publick injury, we have engaged the vessel that conveys this to 
you as a packet in the service of this Colony, and we request your 
assistance in supplying Captain Derby, who commands her, with such 
necessaries as he shall want, on the credit of your constituents in 
Massachusetts- Bay. But we most ardently wish that the several pa- 
pers herewith enclosed may be immediately printed and dispersed 
through every Town in England, and especially communicated to the 
Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London, 
that they may take such order thereon as they may think proper ; and 
we are confident your fidelity will make such improvement of them 
as shall convince all who are not determined to be in everlasting 
blindness, that it is the united efforts of both Englands that must save 
either. But whatever price our brethren in one may be pleased to put 
on their constitutional liberties, we are authorized to assure you that 
the inhabitants of the other, with the greatest unanimity, are inflex- 
ibly resolved to sell theirs only at the price of their lives. 

" Signed by order of the Provincial Congress : 

Jos. Warren, President pro tern." 

The following order had previously passed, the same 
day: 

"In provincial Congress, Watertown, Apr 26-1775 
" Ordered that y^ Hona Richd Derby, Esq^, be & he here- 



THE CRUISE OF THE *' QUERO." 19 

by is impoweied to fit out his vessel as a packet to Great 
Britain in y*' Service of this Colony & to Charge y® Col- 
ony with y^ hire of y® Vessel & all other expences which 
he shall be at for port charges Victiielling, necessaries &c 

"Ordered that a Committee be now appointed to draught 
a letter to y® agent of this Colony Benjamin Franklin 
Esqre to be sent with y'' papers now preparing for G. 
Britain & that y® agent be desired to supply Capt. John 
Derby with such Necessaries as he shall want, on y'' Credit 
of this Colony & to assist & serve sd Capt. Derby in any 
other respect. 

"Ordered that Henry Gardner, Esqre, deliver to the 
Hon' Richard Derby, Esqre, Thirteen Pounds, Six Shill- 
ings & eight pence for "fitting out his vessel as a packet in 
y^ service of this Colony." 

Endorsed " order for fitting out a packet handed in by 
y^ Committee of safety and passed as an order, April 26, 
1775." 

At last, on the 27th of April, sailing orders passed the 
Congress. And the " Quero " seems to have escaped at 
some hour of the night between the 28th and 29th. 
Whether the order to land in Ireland was meant in good 
faith to be observed, or merely as a blind. Captain Derby 
appears to have disregarded it. The vote of April 27 was 
as follows : 

" Resolved : that Captain Derby be directed and he hereby is directed 
to make for Dublin or any other good port in Ireland, and from ihence 
to cross to Scotland or England, and hasten to London. This direc- 
tion is given that so he may escape all enemies that may be in the 
chops of the channel to stop the communication of the Provincial in- 
telligence to the agent. He will forthwith deliver his papers to the 
agent on reaching London. 

J. Warren, chairman. 
" P. S. You are to keep this order a profound secret from every 
person on earth." 

Thus stoutly equipped the Salem Captain gave himself 
to the work in hand. He made the best of his way across 
the ocean and reached port after a twenty-nine days pas- 
sage — a good passage in those days. Just where he 
made land it is impossible to say. The conjecture that 
he was put ashore in a boat in some inlet of the Isle of 



20 



THE CRUISE OF THE QUERO. 



Wight, having put his first officer iu command, and ordered 
the "Quero " to Falmouth, at the southwestern extremity 




of Enghind, and that he crossed by public conveyance from 
the Isle of Wight to Southampton, and thence pushed on 



THE CKUISE OF THE "QUERO." 21 

to London, would seem to explain all the facts that are 
absolutely known. The " Quero " can hardly have been 
at;^outham[>ton, from the fact that the Customs Officers 
in that section, acting upon urgent directions from White- 
hall, could find no trace of her. The chances of a suc- 
cessful landing would seem to have been better almost 
anywhere than in the Channel and close by Portsmouth, 
the great naval station. Yet the point was near London, 
and American sailors were at home in those waters, and 
the boldest risk is often the safest. In one way or an- 
other Captain Derby reached London unmolested, May 28, 
and with his startling intelligence set the Kingdom on fire. 
The bills rendered for this extraordinary service are 
unique and, together with the action of the Congress, are 
to be read in full in the Archives of Massachusetts. It 
will be noted that while the Derbys were wonderfully 
favored in avoiding collisions with the King's Navy they 
did not wholly escape doing violence to the King's Eng- 
lish. They only asserted that common eighteenth-century 
right, now so generally renounced, which made the spell- 
ing of the mother tongue, at that day, a " matter of pri- 
vate judgment." The bill for fitting out the "Quero " was 
rendered by Richard Derby, Jr., and was paid to Elias 
Hasket Derby, August 1, 1775. William Gray, the great 
merchant, seems to have contributed £10, sterling, to- 
wards her outfit. The voucher is in these words : 

the Province Massachusetts-Bay to Eichard Derby ju. D'' for the 
Hire Victueling, Port Charges, Portledg Bill, &c for the Schooner 
Quero, Voyage from Salem in New England to Great Britain and back 
to Salem aforesaid, in the Service of this Coloney — viz : Avith Depo- 
sitions relative to Battle of Lexington. 

1775. 

th 
April 25 To 3 barrils Bread w. 2. 3. N. a 25/4 p 3. 9. 8. 

To 1 bus. Beans 6/, I 1/2 bus. Pease a 4/ . 12. . 

To Ibi . . Flour 18/, 25"> Candles a 9 ^ 1. 16. 9 

Charges of Clearing at the Several 

Offices 3 . . 

To 20 Tuns Ballust a 2/8 175 feet Plank 

(.P. Measure) a 8/ .p 3. 7. 4. 

To 2 Cords wood a 13/4<i p Smith, Tuttle, & 
th Palfry for Labour 15/ , 2. 1. 8. 

July 19 To the am. of Mens wages as p Portledg Bill 56. 17. Hi 

Hire of Vessell from 25"^ April to 19"^ July 
following is 2 M" & 24 days for 62 Tuns 
a 6/. p Tun p M° 52. 1. 6. 



22 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 

Prem. of Insurance on £300-out & home 
a6p 18. 

Entry at the Custom House viz. Coll. 15.6 



N. Office 
Camp. 
Impo. Off*. 


6.9 
4.6 
5.- 




1. 11. 9 Sterlg 
is 2. 2. 4 




£ 143. 9. 2 1/2 



1775 

April 27 C^ by Cash Rec^. p W™. Gray £10-Sterlg. 

is 13. 6. 8 
July 19th by 3 barrils Beef-40/ 6. 
Retud in 2 barrils Pork a 54/. 5. 8 
the Schoo- 2 barrils Bread w. l". 3i. 26^^ a 25/4 2. 10. 2 
ner 



27. 4. 10 



£ 116. 4. 4 1/2 

Salem 25 July 1775 
Errors Excepted 
Richard Derby Jn'. 

Salem 25 July 1775. Please Order the Amount of the Above Account 
to be paid M'' Elias Hasket Derby, for acC^. of 

Richard Derby J^ 

EicM. Derby's account 

Doc Church 

Coll Orne 

Capt. Batchelder 

Rich^. Derby's ace' 
Resolved. That the Committee having examined the inclosed ace*' 
of Richard Derby Esq'' & John Derby find them properly vouched & 
right cast, and v/^ recommend that Directions be given to the Treas- 
urer of tliis Province to discharge tlie witliin Ace'* agreable to the 
Orders annexed to said Acc'^ 

pr Benja Church jun^ Chairman. 
The House of Representatives Aug*' 1 1775. 

Resolved. That there be paid to Rich<i. Derby ]■■■ Esq^ or his 
Order out of the publicli Treasury of this Colony the sum of £116.- 
4-4 1/2 in full of the within account- 
sent up for concurrence 
Jas : Warren Speali' 
Aug'. P' 1775. 
In Council read & Concurred 

Attest P Morton, Secry pro temp. 
Consented to 

J;tmes Otis Eldad Taylor 

W Sever Mich" : Farley 

B Greenleaf Jabez Fisher 



THE CRUISE OF THE "QUERO." 23 

W Spooner Moses Gill 

Caleb Gushing John Ta3'lor 

John Whetcomb B White 

Jed''. Foster Cha Chauncy 

B Lincoln 

38 

n-, Entd 

"S Grant to Rich** Derby 

u of llG.4/4 1/2- 

-§ August 1. 1775 

S. Recorded page 29 

S 9- -N". J 

The modest account rendered by Captain John'Derby 
himself, in which he estimates his splendid service as of 
no money value, finding remuneration enough in his suc- 
cess, must be seen in facsimile. It seems to show that 
he had been at the Isle of Wight, had landed in that 
region, and had reembarked for home at or near Falmouth. 

This is a transcript of it with its endorsements : 

The Colony of Massachusetts bay to John Derby D"" : 
in Schooner Quero 
1775 
Aprill To Sundry Stores for my Passage to England 5. 0. 0. 

28 
May To Expences at the Island White & Southampton 3. 5.0 
To my Expences & Post Chaise hire from Southamp- ") 

ton to London 80 miles a 9<> p mile / 4. 1.").0 

My Expences in London 7. 17. 

Post Chaise hire from London to Falmouth in the 
■west of England by the way of Portsmouth 294 
miles a Qd p mile, Except the two First Stages from 
London which is 1/ p mile 11. 8. 

To My Expences from London to Falmouth 2. 5. 

To paid the Sarcher & waiters at Falmouth 1. 0. 

Sum See Coles for Fireing 1. 4. 

To Light money, Pierage, & Clearance at Castle &c 3. 12. 
S^bi Bread a 19/ & Carriage 2. 17. 8 

Seib Beef a B"!, 12»» Candles a 9<i 1. 3.0 

Small Bear, Greans &c for the People 1. 15. 

To Boat hire to Fill our warter at Falmouth 4. 

To my Private Expences at Falmouth 2. 0. 

To Sundry Nececary Stores for my Passage home to 1 

New England J8. 15.0 
To my time in Executing the Voige from hence to ) 

London & Back 5 



Starling £ 57. 0. 8 
Salem 25 July 1775 
Errors Excepted 

John Derby 

Pleas to pay the within to M"" : Ealias Basket Derby & you'll oblige 
your Very Humble Sarvant 

John Derby 



24 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUEEO." 

In the 
House of Representatives Ang^* 1^' 1775 

Resolved that there be paid out of the publicls Treasury of this 
Colony to M-- John Derby or his Order the sum of £ 57. 0. 8 sterling 
agreable to the within Account 

Sent up for Concurrence 

Jas : Warren Speak' 



Augt l^t 1775 
In Council read & concurred 



Attest P Morton Secry protemp 



Consented to 

James Otis Mich" : Farley 

W Sever Jabez Fisher 

B Greenleaf Moses Gill 

"W Spooner John Taylor 

Caleb Gushing [Endorsed :] 

J Winthrop Enfi 40 

John Whetcomb Cap* John Derby's 

Jed^ Foster ac* granted 57/8 

B Lincoln Stere August 1 1775 

Eldad Taylor Recorded page 31 

Cha Chauncy doC Church) 9- N". 8 

Coll Orne) 2 

Cap* Batchleder) com'^^ 

The Quero's inward manifest, sworn to at the Salem 
Impost Office, July 19, by William Carlton, ^ Master, de- 

9What manner of men were the Carltons a word will illustrate. There were 
two brothers : Col. Samuel Carlton, whose letter from Valley Forge, never before 
printed, has the ring of true metal. For him Carlton street was named. William 
Carlton married a Palfray and was the father of a son and namesake who edited 
in succession the Salem Gazette and the Essex Register. Both were shipmasters 
In the employ of Capt. Derby. . 

" When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought," says the venerable George Rea 
Curwen, "my great-grandfather, Col. Samuel Carlton, was in England. He came 
home at once, went to his house on Union street, and hired a drummer and lifer 
to go with liim through Essex street to Buffum's Corner, to see if he could drum 
up a company of volunteers; he didn't succeed; but the next day he went up to 
Buffum's Corner again with his drummer and fifer and got a company together 
and took them down to his house on Union street, and drilled them. After he 
got them drilled he went off to the war with them taking the command : he very 
soon rose to be Colonel and General Washington spoke in the highest terms of 
him, describing him as one of the most intrepid officers he had under him. The 
Colonel took a pane of glass out of one of his front windows and put in a 
wooden one instead and painted on it This pane pays no Tax." 

This is his letter: 

Camp Valley Forge, Mar. 21st, 1778. 
Dear Child, 

With pleasure I received yours of the 14th inst., by Mr. Harris who informs 
me the family are well, which I rejoice to hear. You make mention of hard 
times. Don't let that expression roll over the tongue or come from the point of 
a pen of a daughter of a patriot, which by the way I have the honor to bear that 
character. Hard times! hard times! No, there is no such thing. What! when 
the God ess Liberty [who knows the sweetsof that unparalleled Jewel?] is afford- 
ing us all her assistance! and therefore, must enjoyn it upon you not to even 
think anything hard or insurmountable, for if my old worn out life should go a 
sacrifice, and go when it will it shall go a willingone if we can obtain that prec- 
ious jewel. 

In haste your affectionate father 

Sam'l Carlton. 



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THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 25 

scribes her as from Falmouth, in ballast, without passen- 
gers, freight or consignee. This would seem to make it 
probable that Derby did not return in her to Salem. 
Doubtless he bore secret dispatches to the Commander-in 
Chief and probably enough he may have come ashore on 
Ipswich Beach, and from that point taken the Old Boston 
Koad through North Beverly and Dan vers to Cambridge, 
thus avoiding the risks awaiting Yankee vessels between 
the Capes of Massachusetts Bay. That he reported to 
Washington in person on the 18th of July appears from 
the Essex Gazette for that month. This is its statement : 

" Cambridge, July 21. 

*' Capt. John Derby, who sailed from Salem for London a few 
Days after the Battle of Bexington, returned last Tuesday, and the 
same Day came to Head-Quarters in this Place. Very little Intelli- 
gence has yet transpired — we only learn, that the News of the Com- 
mencement of the American War. threw tlie People in England, es- 
pecially the City of Loudon, into great Consternation, and occasioned 
a considerable Fall of the Stoclis : That the Ministry (linowing noth- 
ing of the Battle till they saw it published in the London papers) adver- 
tised, in the Gazette, that they had received no Account of any Action, 
and pretended to believe that there had been none : That the Parlia- 
ment was prorogued two Days befo e Capt. Derby arrived, but it 
was said would be immediately called together again. That, when he 
left London, which was about the 1st of June, no Account of Hostil- 
ities had been received by the Ministry from General Gage, notwith- 
standing the Vessel he dispatched sailed four Days before Capt. Derby : 
That our Friends increased in Number; and that many who had re- 
mained neuter in the Dispute, began to express themselves warmly in 
our Favor : That we, however, have no Reason to expect any Mercy 
from the Ministry, who seem determined to pursue their Measures 
(long since concerted) for ruining the British Empire. 

"Capt. Derby brought a few London Papers, some as late as the first 
of June, but we have not been able to obtain a Sight of them. We 
are informed they contain very little News, and scarce any Remarks 
on American AflTairs." 

A word about John Derby should close this account of 
the "Quero " incident. He was of English stock, thirty- 
four years old, and well connected. He was twice mar- 
ried, but left no child. His first marriage was with 
Hannah Clarke who died in 1786. She was of the Fer- 
neaux-Chirkes of Salem and her aunt had married William 
Fairfax, the Royal Collector of Customs at Salem, with 
whom she had emigrated to Virginia, and was the mother 
of the eighth Lord Fairfax, the only Peer of England 
ever boru in Salem, and later of daughters who inter- 



26 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUEKO." 

married with the Washingtons. For his second wife he 
chose, in 1787, the widow Elizabeth Pierce of Boston, 
whose sister was the wife of the Honorable Caleb Davis, 
the first Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Repre- 
sentatives under the Constitution of 1780 — holding for 
eight years a seat there and in the old Assembly — a 
member of the Convention which ratified the Federal 
Constitution in 1788 and, in 1789, a member of the elec- 
toral College which made Washington onr first President. 
Captain Derby's mother was a Hodges of Salem and this 
connection allies him with Joseph Hodges Choate and 
with many another scion of the best blood of New Eng- 
land. Rogers, the sculptor, and "John Phoenix," [Lieu- 
tenant Derby] the Avit, were both of his kindred, as well 
as distinguished Derbys too numerous to mention. His 
brother, Elias Hasket Derby, the pioneer of the India 
trade, perhaps as great a merchant as New England has 
produced, married Elizabeth Crowninshield and his sister 
Mary married George Crowninshield. His brother Rich- 
ard married Lydia Gardner and his sister Sarah married 
John Gardner. 

Of his father's descent it is enough to say that he was 
of Devonshire stock. Roger Darby, a member of the 
society of Friends, came here to brave this inhospitable 
atmosphere in 1671, and dying in 1698 left a will duly 
proven before the Honourable Jonathan Corwin, the 
Witchcraft Magistrate, by which he distributed amongst 
his round dozen heirs, six sons and six daughters, certain 
comfortable messuages, with wharves, warehouses, two 
servants, Cate and Csesar, a tankard, and other indica- 
tions of provident forecasting. He had a son Richard, 
who married — the record calls him "Derbe " — Martha, 
daughter of Col. Elias Hasket, a Royal Governor of the 
Bahamas, and through this Richard, who was a Provin- 
cial pilot in the Port Royal Expedition of 1710 and through 
this Richard's son, — again named Richard, the merchant- 
patriot of the North Bridge incident, — the Quaker, Roger 
Darby, had transmitted his name and lineage to John 
Derby of the "Quero." Americans are not numerous 
who have been progenitors of a more distinguished line. 
Following the sea, as everybody in Salem did who was 




CAPTAIN JOHN DERBY 
1741-181 2 
Engraved for the Century Magazine from a portrait painted fronn the life 
by Gilbert Stuart in I 809 



THE CRUISE OF THE " QUERO." 27 

able-bodied and had ambition, the Derbys before the Rev- 
olution had one after another amassed a competency, had 
done their part to develop trade and build up the neigh- 
borhood, and had died respected. 

Four times had the sturdy Quaker and his English wife 
been fined " for not coming to meeting on the Lord's Dayes " 
before they had lived here six years — both of them com- 
mitted and their homestead " ceazed " on execution for 
non-payment. Whether Roger began the structure which 
afterwards developed into Derby Wharf when his neigh- 
bor and contemporary, Philip English, the witchcraft vic- 
tim, began the Crowninshield Wharf, is not apparent. 
But when his grandson, the North Bridge hero, whose 
portrait we are able to -produce from a painting by Sar- 
gent, a copy of which by Southard is in the Essex Insti- 
tute, died in 1783, he had a chariot and pair to leave to 
his estimable relict ; houses lor her and for each of his 
daughters; a wharf, warehouses, dockage, and vessels, 
with the usual concomitants of plate, tankards and house- 
hold belongings, not omitting negro servants to be pro- 
vided for. And we give a sketch of the substantial, 
dignified red-brick homestead which he built, a little 
retired from the rough cartway or lane connecting the 
wharves and dockage of the fine old seaport — a way soon 
to become the Derby Street of Hawthorne's Custom House 
and Salem's commercial prime. The house still stands 
with its buttressed walls, its dormer windows, its panelled 
wainscoting and its moulded English bricks, to bear wit- 
ness to its ancient grandeur and, as Hawthorne somewhere 
says of another, to protest against the encroachments of 
the bustling present. 

No son of Harvard ever sees it without thinking of old 
Massachusetts Hall, erected at Cambridge in 1718. The 
private way, which was known in deeds as " Mansfield's 
Lane," in 1732-41, and in 1771 as the " way by the Har- 
bour or South River," began to be "Derby Street, — so 
called " in 1774, and before the end of the century was duly 
installed as " Derby Street " in full standing. How the 
name " Derby " or " Darby " first found its way to Salem 
I do not know. There was a "Darby Fort" at Naugus 
Head as early as 1635, and about that very year Father 



28 THE CRUISE OF THE " QUEKO." 

Woodbury, the old planter and first Constable of Salem, 
married for his second wife Avis, the widow of John 
Darby of Marblehead. Whatever its origin, the name 
well fitted one of the great thoroughfares of Sa em. It 
was well that the eight-foot way skirting the North River, 
from the ancient Bass River ferry to the Town Bridge at 
Blubber Hollow, should develop into the modern " Bridge 
Street." It was well that the crooked lane which divided 
our first town lots should become the " Old Main Street " 
and King's Street and Qneen's Street and Cheapside and 
Old Paved Street and should at last be known from Neck 
Gate to Bnffum's Corner by the name of Essex Street. It 
is well that the elm-roofed highway which brought Lafay- 
ette from the Marblehead line to the centre of the town — 
its generous proportions and stately shade we owe to 
Ezekiel Hersey Derby — should bear the name of Lafay- 
ette. And it is well that the cart-track which united all 
our busy docks in the early eighteenth century should have 
grown into a commodious street to bear, from Block House 
Square to the Railroad Station, the honored name of 
Derby. 

No name in local annals has been more honorably dis- 
tinguished from the day when, a full century before the 
declaration of our political freedom, old Roger Darby, a 
candle-maker like Franklin's father, and a Quaker, began 
in 1676 to feed the "inward light " by standing out for the 
rights of conscience, down throusrh the Civil War, when 
one of his blood embodied the patriotic sentiment of the 
time in the statuettes of Rogers. 

It was a Derby who piloted our fleet to victory in 1710 
through the defences of Port Royal. It was a Derby who 
furnished Salem in 1749 with her first fire-engine. The 
long pile-wharves which began to stretch seaward in 1765 
in front of the then new Derby Homestead bear the name 
of Derby. One of the little group who stemmed the tide 
of Gage's passion in August, 1774, was Richard Derby, 
and some of the guns were his for which Gage was strug- 
gling without success in the February that followed. It 
was a Derby that took the news of Lexington to London 
in advance of the Goverimient in 1775 and a Derby that 
brought the news of peace from Paris in 1783 in the nine- 



THE CRUISE OF THE " QDERO." 2^ 

teen days' trip of the Derby ship " Astrsea." From 1769 
throughout the century the family held seats at the Exec- 
utive Council Board or in the House of Assembly or in 
the Provincial Congress. In 1783 a Derby built, just across 
the way, her bowsprit almost reaching over the front gar- 
den plot of the old mansion, the " Grand Turk "whose five 
hundred and sixty tons ranked her the largest ship afloat in 
our waters, and they sent her pioneering to open the trade 
of America with China. In 1790 they introduced scien- 
tific gardening and imported floriculture. In 1792 John 
Derby's ship "Columbia "discovered and named the great 
CoUimhia River. In 1792 one of them received a depu- 
tation from a Fi-ench fleet to acknowledge his manly treat- 
ment of some Frenchmen who had been his prisoners. And 
one of them, in 1799, just a century ago, in command of 
his armed merchantman, the "Mount Vernon," beat oflT 
the combined attack from the French and Spanish fleets of 
a sloop-of-war and a frigate. In 1798 a Derby was one 
of two to subscribe $10,000 towards building the frigate 
"Essex," and she was launched from a yard at Winter 
Island near Salem Neck leased by the town for a thousand 
years to another of the Derbys. In 1799 a Derby built the 
stateliest mansion ever reared in S;dem. In 1802 Derbys 
were larsfelv instrumentid in wi-adinof and be.'iutifvino: the 
Common ; in 1805 a Derby gave us our noble avenue to 
Marblehead and Swampscott. In 1816 the Derby Square 
was donated to the town for a market-place and council- 
house forever. In 1818 a Derby was on the Federal 
Commission which built the Custom House on a part of 
the Derl)y acres, and he off<M'ed to remove a warehouse 
which obstructed the water view, binding his estate never 
to erect another structure between the Custom House and 
the water. 

The considerable block of land upon which, in the midst 
of many other buildings, the Custom House and the Derby 
Honiestead both stand to-day, extending: from Orange 
Street to Pidfray Court along the Derby Street front, was 
C:iptain Richard Derl)y's demesne. Upon the marriage 
of his daughter, Mary, with George Crowninshield, an 
estiite was set ofl' to her in the southwesterly corner of 
it, upon which her husband built a fine mansion-house of 



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